Monday, March 02, 2015

Magister Lor (first play at Indiemeet)

Players and characters

Initial questions

Note: some of these answers are classic blocks and shutdowns but we got enough of a picture of the characters to get going.

Lor

Do you have long to live?
Very long indeed, I am almost immortal

Are you confident and firm in your faith?
Yes

Why did you choose Kai?
Because of his potential and the questions he asks of the world.

Setarra

What do you think of the other outcasts?
We must free them all.

What do you feel most guilty about?
I don't believe in regrets.

What do you feel about being imprisoned?
I was imprisoned for what I am, not because of what I have done.

Kel

Are the twin's parents alive?
I have no knowledge of my family except the brother taken from me.

Do you know where your twin is?
After searching a long time my latest lead led to Magister Lor's Sanctum.

What do you want most?
To survive in a harsh, harsh world.

Kai

Do you feel guilty about your life of leisure?
I slave for my master and have many duties.

What would you do if you had absolute freedom?
I'd like to travel to the capital of the Empire, where I would enjoy the glamour of the great city and also my power as a mage.

What temptation might derail you?
I've never met a woman.

Freeing Setarra

Setarra and Kel decide that to free Setarra Kel has stolen a sky ship warded against detection and has piloted it to the Sanctum. Once docked he sneaks through the empty corridors of the Sanctum down to the wind whipped platform at its base.

The crystal imprisoning Setarra can only be broken by something harder than it, Kel has found an ancient pick of starmetal and he draws it from under his robes as he nears the huge crystal towering over him.

Kel strikes the crystal and it begins to crack and splits, within a shadowy humanoid form can be seen.

The game

Having broken the crystal Kel slips away before the Magister and Kai arrive.

On arriving at the platform Lor quickly assesses the situation and attempts to create a new binding around the demon before Setarra can free itself. Despite drawing on the mystical energy of the sanctum the binding fails.

Kel finds a meditation chamber and drains its energy, turn the lush magical retreat to ashes. He channels the energy to Seterra.

Lor seeing the demon grow stronger channels energy into his sword, it burns with arcane energy. He leaps to the attack and he and Setarra fight a furious duel in the air. The remains of the crystal is destroyed, peppering in the Sanctum with shards of the prison. Kai is forced to hide from the flying shards. The Sanctum lists in the face of the unleashed energy.

Kel sends a vision to Kai of their separation. Kai refuses to follow the vision and instead stays by the side of his master.

Setarra senses Kai's unease and tries to exploit it by intimidating him into fleeing. Kai falters under the demon's assault but uses his ability to channel essence to find the strength to resist.

With Setarra temporarily checked Lor sends Kai to confront Kel who has climbed to the top of the tower that is located on top of the Sanctum. There he destroys the device that controls the Sanctum's levitation and the giant rock begins to fall into the deadly gas clouds beneath.

Refresh scenes in the lighthouse

Participants: Kel and Kai and Kel and Lor.

Question for Kai: what happened to our parents?
The magister told Kai they had died.

Question for Kel: what are you doing here?
I was guided here by Setarra in my quest to find my lost twin brother

Kel again: what will you do next?
I don't know, I haven't thought about that

Question to Lor: what happened to our parents?
They were demons descended from the Leviathans.

Lor tries to use magic to control Kel but Kai warns his twin and Kel resists easily.

Lor retreats from the lighthouse to let the twins talk. They decide to flee the Sanctum on the sky ship, leaving Lor and Setarra to their fight.

Setarra far below releases a storm demon and tries to use it to slip past Lor but the magister easily binds the creature in its cloak and throws the demon into the void.

On the outside face of the Sanctum Lor confronts Setarra and they duel furiously, dealing wounds on both sides but neither is willing to yield a step.

Far above Kel boards the sky ship and makes it ready while Kai hesitates on the dockside and then summons a mighty storm to drive Kel far away from the Sanctum and away from danger. As the storm fills the sails and drags the sky ship away Kel uses his essence ability to weaken it and manages to steer the ship back towards the Sanctum.

Refresh: Lor and Setarra

Exhausted by their battle the pair cautiously circle one another as the Sanctum descends into the mists.

Question for Setarra: Are you Kel and Kai's father?
Yes.

Question for Lor: did you kill their mother?
No, for I am their mother.

Kai overhears this revelation while descending the side of the Sanctum and asks Lor and Setarra to work together to help him save the Sanctum. Kai and Lor use magic to drap Setarra to the top of the lighthouse.

Setarra mentally calls to Kel to save it and Kai but leave Lor behind.

Kel, furious at Kai's betrayal and eagerness to abandon him, aims the sky ship at Lor, ramming into the lighthouse. Lor throws up a magical shield at the last moment protecting everyone in the lighthouse but the ship is embedded in the tower its masts breaking and falling through the clouds. Kel glides from the bridge to the ruined lighthouse.

Refresh scene between Kel and Kai

Kai: why did you abandon me?
I have a duty to uphold as an apprentice.

Kel: do you know that Setarra is our father?
No it never told me in all the time I followed its voice.

Setarra tells Kel that it want Kel to follow it because of the strength of Setarra's cause and the injustice of its imprisonment, not because of some family tie or obligation. Then it turns to the clouds and sings the summoning song of the Leviathans, one of the enormous creatures wraps its limbs around the Sanctum and begins to lift it up into the sky.

Lor attacks Setarra but the demon catches the magister in its terrible claws and holds Lor over the void.

Kai burns Setarra with channeled essence and Setarra and Lor fall into the cloud as essence burns all around their tumbling forms.